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<blockquote data-quote="Jack7" data-source="post: 5729083" data-attributes="member: 54707">My first introduction to what might today be&nbsp; called fantasy was The White Stag, which I read in the 3rd grade, and&nbsp; next year the Saga of Siegfried and the Song of Roland. All my&nbsp; earliest &quot;fantasy influences and sources&quot; were mythological, not modern&nbsp; fantasy.&nbsp; &nbsp;I have copies of all 3 books in my personal&nbsp; library, but not the copies I read first. Though the other day I did find a&nbsp; mixed French English copy of the Chanson de Roland, which I'm almost certain was&nbsp; the same copy I read many, many years ago.&nbsp; &nbsp;Thereafter I began to read HG Wells, Jules Verne,&nbsp; ER Burroughs, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Immanuel Velikovsky (my intro to sci-fi&nbsp; - though I reckon few of you know who he is - but my buddies and I had superb&nbsp; discussions and arguments on his theories and writings). After that came the Golden Bough and&nbsp; Conan Doyle. And the Nordic Sagas.&nbsp; &nbsp;I read Tolkien in High School, only after first&nbsp; taking up D&amp;D, after being introduced to it through a wargamer I knew. I had&nbsp; a teacher in my AP English class tell me that she would fail me on my term paper&nbsp; because I wanted to do a comparative paper between the Lord of the Rings and&nbsp; Idylls of the King. (She hated Tolkien, calling him a &quot;kid's scribbler,&quot; but&nbsp; liked Tennyson.) I told her it was my paper and none of her business, did it&nbsp; anyway, and she gave me a D, but I passed anyways. That made me like fantasy&nbsp; more.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Most weekends my grandfather drove me to a chemist&nbsp; he knew who was a friend of his. He ran his own apothecary shop. When nobody&nbsp; else was around he let me grind medicines in his mortar with a pestle. This was&nbsp; my introduction into medicine and science, and at the same time my grandfather&nbsp; would buy me a comic book or two. In those days almost all comics were sold in&nbsp; drug-stores.&nbsp; &nbsp;He'd buy me Justice League or Batman or Superman&nbsp; or Wonder Woman. I have extremely fond memories of those trips with my&nbsp; grandfather, and the times he took me fishing and hunting. Wish I'd kept the&nbsp; comics too. But my mother disposed of them the first time I went off to&nbsp; college.&nbsp; &nbsp;Since those comics were from the 60s and very&nbsp; early 70s they might be worth quite a bit now.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;I had a buddy whose father was in the Navy during&nbsp; Vietnam and discouraged him from reading. Said it was unmanly. However my&nbsp; buddy's grandfather had been a Marine in WWII and read all of the time. And was&nbsp; a rather brilliant man. My buddy took after his grandpa.&nbsp; &nbsp;My father was smart but didn't read a lot. My&nbsp; mother is very book smart, but extremely impractical. However she taught me to&nbsp; read at 3 years old. She went on to become a teacher. Yet when I started&nbsp; homeschooling my own kids and taught them to read at 3 and 4 she told me that&nbsp; was too young for me to teach them to read. They learned anyway and within&nbsp; a year were reading by themselves.&nbsp; &nbsp;It's funny how different propel in the same family&nbsp; approach life very differently.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jack7, post: 5729083, member: 54707"] [FONT=Verdana]My first introduction to what might today be called fantasy was [I]The White Stag[/I], which I read in the 3rd grade, and next year the [I]Saga of Siegfried[/I] and the [I]Song of Roland[/I]. All my earliest "fantasy influences and sources" were mythological, not modern fantasy.[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana] [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]I have copies of all 3 books in my personal library, but not the copies I read first. Though the other day I did find a mixed French English copy of the [B][I]Chanson de Roland[/I][/B], which I'm almost certain was the same copy I read many, many years ago.[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana] [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]Thereafter I began to read HG Wells, Jules Verne, ER Burroughs, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Immanuel Velikovsky (my intro to sci-fi - though I reckon few of you know who he is - but my buddies and I had superb discussions and arguments on his theories and writings). After that came the Golden Bough and Conan Doyle. And the Nordic Sagas.[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana] [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]I read Tolkien in High School, only after first taking up D&D, after being introduced to it through a wargamer I knew. I had a teacher in my AP English class tell me that she would fail me on my term paper because I wanted to do a comparative paper between the Lord of the Rings and Idylls of the King. (She hated Tolkien, calling him a "kid's scribbler," but liked Tennyson.) I told her it was my paper and none of her business, did it anyway, and she gave me a D, but I passed anyways. That made me like fantasy more.[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana] [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana] [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana] [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]Most weekends my grandfather drove me to a chemist he knew who was a friend of his. He ran his own apothecary shop. When nobody else was around he let me grind medicines in his mortar with a pestle. This was my introduction into medicine and science, and at the same time my grandfather would buy me a comic book or two. In those days almost all comics were sold in drug-stores.[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana] [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]He'd buy me Justice League or Batman or Superman or Wonder Woman. I have extremely fond memories of those trips with my grandfather, and the times he took me fishing and hunting. Wish I'd kept the comics too. But my mother disposed of them the first time I went off to college.[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana] [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]Since those comics were from the 60s and very early 70s they might be worth quite a bit now.[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana] [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana] [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana] [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]I had a buddy whose father was in the Navy during Vietnam and discouraged him from reading. Said it was unmanly. However my buddy's grandfather had been a Marine in WWII and read all of the time. And was a rather brilliant man. My buddy took after his grandpa.[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana] [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]My father was smart but didn't read a lot. My mother is very book smart, but extremely impractical. However she taught me to read at 3 years old. She went on to become a teacher. Yet when I started homeschooling my own kids and taught them to read at 3 and 4 she told me that was too young for me to teach them to read. They learned anyway and within a year were reading by themselves.[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana] [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]It's funny how different propel in the same family approach life very differently.[/FONT] [/QUOTE]

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